CO CRANIA BBITANNICA.
4. BRITAIN AS KNOWN TO THE ROMANS.
[CHAP. V.
A remarkable general conformity is to bo observed in the maimers, institutions, and language
of tlie Celtic tribes, spread as tbese were through the whole extent of Europe, from Iberia and
the Pyrenees in the west, to the Thracian Bosphorus and Asia Minor in the east, and from the
banks of the Po and plains of Italy in the south, to the Hebrides and " Ultima Thüle" of the
remote north. This conformity enables the inquirer to obtain, from the scattered notices of
ancient authors, a more complete picture, than would otherwise be possible, of the characteristic
customs and modes of life of the Celts, in any given portion of this extensive area. Those
tribes of the south who were most immediately in contact with the Greeks of Massüia and with
the Romans, were necessarily more advanced in civilization than the Belgic Celts of the northwest
of Gaul, who seem to have held an intermediate place between these former and the
insular Celts of Britain. Of the latter, the inhabitants of the north of Albion, the Hebrides,
and the western island of lerne, were in many respects, as we shall find, little removed in civilization
from the condition of the most barbarous of existing tribes*.
MODE OF LIFE, MORAL CHJSACTFRISTICS, AND MANNERS.
The ancient Britons were a warlike and semi-barbarous people, among whom the arts of
life had made but a slight, or at the most a very unequal, progress. The inhabitants of the
southern and eastern coasts, descendants of Belgic tribes who had settled there a few generations
only before the time of Csesar, were more civiKzed than those of the interior, and differed but
little in their manners from the Gauls. The so-called aboriginal inhabitants of the more central
and northern parts retained their pastoral and nomadic mode of life, coupled with that ferocity
and love of war, which had for ages rendered the Gauls the terror of Romef- Strabo describes
the inhabitants of the Cassiterides, by which we understand south-western Britain, as "subsisting
by then- cattle, and leading for the most part a wandering lifei." Such, for long, appear to have
been the habits of the people of the interior, most of whom did not sow corn, but lived on milk
and flesh, and were clad with skins; being, as Strabo adds, totally imacquainted with horticultm-e
and other matters of husbandry§. The Belgic tribes of the southern coasts introduced from
Gaul a greater attention to agriculture; and in Caesar's first expedition to Britain, the corn-
* The " Excerpta ex Scriptoribus Grsecis atque Latinis," in
the "Mouumenta Histórica Britannica," have been extensively
used in writing this section ; and the quotations from the Greek
have in general been taken from that most valuable work.
The "Memoirs of the Celts," by Ritson, 1827, is a useful
collection, for the manners and customs of the Britons and
Gauls. It was, however, published posthumously, and has
many errors of type and of inaccurate reference; the translations,
also, are often not from the original, and very erroneous.
t Tacitus, Vif. Agrie, e. 8, 11, 21. "Plus tamcn ferocia;
Britanni prseferunt,—manent quales Galh fuerunt." Cffisar,
B. G. lib. V. c. 12, 14. Here, speaking of the more civilized
people of Kent, CiEsar says, "neque multnm a GalHca difPerunt
consuetudine." Strabo (hb. iv. c. 4. § 2) says of the Britons,
"their manners, as to some of them, are like those of the
Celts, though as to others, they are more simple and barbarous."
These passages show that the manners of the Britons,
of at least the maritime states, may be largely inferred from
those of the Gauls. To a much less extent, the manners of the
ancient Germans may be drawn upon in the same way.
Strabo (lib. iv, c. 4. § 2) says he has described the manners
of the Gauls as he " understood they existed in former times,
and as they still exist among the Germans." Here, however,
we must remember the radical differences as to ccrtain points ;
—the " Germani multnm ab hac consuetudine differunt" of
Caesar, B. G. lib. vi. c. 21. Cf. Strabon., lib. vii. c. 1. § 2.
t Strabo, lib. hi. c. 5. § 11.
§ Ca;sar, B. G. lib. v. c. 14. Strabo, lib. iv. c. .5. § 2.
Strabo says of the Gauls, that they subsisted principally on
milk and all kinds of flesh, especially that of the swine, which
they eat both fresh and salted, exporting much of the latter to
Rome. Their hogs were remarkable for theii- size and ferocity.
Lib. iv. c. 4. § 3.
CHAP. V.] HISTORICAL ETHNOLOGY OF BRITAIN. C7
fields of Kent afl^orded a precarious sustenance to his army*. At the commencement of our era,
corn had become an export from the islandt; and at a later period, the half-subjugated Britons
under Claudius and his successors were compeUed to cultivate the fields to pay that tribute of
corn by which the Roman legions were maintained, the abuses and oppression connected mth
which excited the just indignation of Tacitus, and requii-ed for their suppression the vigorous
administration of Agricola J. Boadicea is represented as aclvnowledging the want of skill of the
Britons in husbandi-y, and complains of their being compelled to tUl the ground for their
conquerors§. Galgacus, in his speech before the battle of the Grampians, asserted that the
northern Britons possessed no arable land. The same remained the case nearly two centuries
later, when Severus explored the northern part of the island; the Meatse and Caledomans still
having no ploughed lauds, but living by pasturage and the chase. According to Dion, the
northern Britons did not eat the ilsh which so abounded on their shores and in their rivers, but
this pecuHarity may have been confined to certain tribes; as Solfaius, speaking of the people of
the Hebrides, says that they were unacquainted with fruits, and Uved solely on fish and mUkf.
The Britons had dogs famous for theh- sagacity in hunting, which were exported to the
continent, and which were employed in war by the Gauls. These British dogs are extolled, for
their strength and fleetness, by the Latin poets Ealiscus and Nemesian, who pronounce them to
be equal or superior to the famous Molossian hounds. Oppian describes them more particularly,
as of smaU size, lean and shaggy, and as especiaUy prized for their keenness of scent: they had
the native name of agasaei**. Little change probably took place in the customs of the Britons
as to the chase, for many centm-ies, and the description of the Cymi'ic poet Anem-in may as well
suit the first as the sixth centm-y :—
" The garment of Tinogad was of divers colours.
Made of the speckled s * * * * *kins o*f you*ng wo*l ves,
When thy father went out to hunt.
With his pole upon his shoulder, and his provisions m his hand.
He would call to his dogs that were of equal size.
Catch it, catch it—seize it, seize it—bring It, bring it;
He would kill a fish in his coracle.
Even as a princely lion in his fury kills his prey ;
When thy father chmbed up the mountain.
He brought back the head of a roebuck, the head of a wild boar, the head of a stag.
The head of a grey moor-hen from the hill.
The head of a fish from the falls of the Derwent;
As many as thy father could reach with his hunting spear.
Of wild boars, ravenous beasts and foxesff. "
Erom their grain, both wheat and barley, the Britons prepared beverages similar to the
various sorts of ale and beer, the cerevisia of Gaul and other countries of the north and west,
* Caesar, B. G. lib. iv. c. 31, 32.
t Strabo, lib. iv. c. 5. § 2.
X Tacitus, Vit. Agric., c. 19, 31.
§ Dion ap. Xiph. lib. Ixii. § 2.
H Dion ap. Xiph. lib. Ixxvi. § 12. Sohnus, c. 22. Even
in our own times, a strong prejudice against the use of fish
for food, is observed, in some districts of the Highlands
and in Ireland. Apparently confirmatory of the statement
of Solinus, the bones of fishes, mixed with those of other
animals which had evidently been used for food, were found in
a " Pict's house," at Kettlebnrn, Caithness, explored by Mr.
A. H. Rlimd. Archneological Journal, 1852, vol. x. p. 216.
** Strabo, lib. iv. c. 5. § 2. Oppian, Cynegetic. lib. i. v. 468.
The furs and other skins of the animals taken in the chase, not
only served for the clothing of the natives, but also constituted
a valuable article of export. Strabo, lib. iii. c. 5. § 11.
t t Gododin (Williams, ed. 1852), v. 854. The Cimbri,
who were clearly Celts, were accompanied by dogs in their
warlike expeditions, which defended the waggons of their defeated
masters. Pliny, lib. viii. § 61.
m